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Page 207
my knees tending you, and because you are a fool if you do not realize it will kill you to lower yourself to the floor and rise up again when it is necessary. And why did you not return as soon as you had taken that band of outlaws? This would never have happened"
"Scold!" Ian exclaimed.
Alinor turned on him, color mantling her cheeks, but he was laughing. She put out her hand and touched his face. "Do you not deserve a scold for a wife? I was worried about you, Ian, but I did not like to keep sending messengers after you. After all, perhaps the less of my company you have, the easier your heart is. How can I know?"
"My heart? My heart is not in question. It has long been"
He stopped abruptly as Gertrude hurried in with a flask of water in one hand and strips of cloth in the other. There was, of course, no reason why Ian should not tell his betrothed wife he loved her in her maid-servant's presence, but Ian had never before been in such a situation. All the women to whom he had made love in the past had been someone else's property. To put them or himself into the power of a maidservant would be both foolish and dangerous. Long practice checked his tongue before thought could correct him.
It was impossible for Alinor to decide whether she wanted to hear the rest of the sentence or not. His heart had long beenwhat? Dead? Given? Would he have told her to whom? Alinor had dropped her hand from his face when he stopped speaking. With the motion, she decided she did not want to hear. Heart or no heart, there was that in Ian's eyes, even now, lurking behind the pain, which gave her more cause for amusement than despair. Poor Ian. Was he a believer in amour courtois? Had he professed his devotion to some great lady in a profusion of sickly verses? If so, his loins were surely at war now with his elevated sentiments. But if

 
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